Packaging box for display panels

ABSTRACT

A packaging box for display panels is provided. The packaging box comprises a box body having an opened end. A pair of opposite inner sidewalls of the box body is provided with a first holding component and a second holding component respectively, and each of the first holding component and the second holding component comprises at least one first recess and at least one second recess. A first distance between the bottom of one first recess of the first holding component and the bottom of one corresponding first recess of the second holding component is different from a second distance between the bottom of one second recess of the first holding component and the bottom of one corresponding second recess of the second holding component.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201420337818.8 filed on Jun. 23, 2014 in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the technical field of packaging. More specifically, the invention relates to a packaging box for display panels.

2. Description of the Related Art

With the rapid development of flat panel display technologies, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have been widely used for display devices of various electronic products due to the following advantages thereof: small size, light weight, high quality and low driving voltage. A LCD display usually comprises a housing, a display panel and a backlight module that are positioned inside the housing. After being produced, display panels need to be transported to other locations to be assembled with other components.

In prior arts, in order to transport display panels safely and quickly, the display panels will be firstly packaged. Recently, according to different applications and in order to improve the utilization of the LCD panels, sizes of display panels are cut to be different. Usually, display panels of same sizes will be packaged into a same packaging box. Therefore, display panels of different sizes should be packaged into different packaging boxes of different sizes.

However, the sizes of display panels are so different that a variety of packaging boxes having different sizes are required, which increases the types and number of the packaging boxes, the managing cost and the production cost.

Therefore, there's a need for a packaging box that can be well adapted to different display panels and can facilitate management of the packaging box.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a packaging box for display panels that are well adapted to different display panels and facilitate management thereof.

The packaging box according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a box body having an opened end. A pair of opposite inner sidewalls of the box body is provided with a first holding component and a second holding component respectively, and each of the first holding component and the second holding component comprises at least one first recess and at least one second recess. A first distance is formed between the bottom of one first recess of the first holding component and the bottom of one corresponding first recess of the second holding component, and a second distance is formed between the bottom of one second recess of the first holding component and the bottom of one corresponding second recess of the second holding component. The first distance is different from the second distance.

Other technical features of the packaging box are described with reference to several specific embodiments.

In the packaging box of the invention, holding recesses having different lengths are formed in the box, therefore only one type of packaging box can be used to package two or more different display panels of different sizes. Therefore, applicability of the packaging box is improved, so as to avoid using too many different types of packaging boxes for different display panels of different sizes. Furthermore, the management of these packaging boxes is facilitated, and the cost is reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustrative perspective view of a packaging box according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustrative perspective view of a packaging box according to a second embodiment of the present invention, showing a cover positioned on a box;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative exploded perspective view of a packaging box according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative top view of the packaging box according to any one of the first to the third embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is an illustrative top view of the packaging box according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein the like reference numerals refer to the like elements. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative perspective view of a packaging box according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the packaging box comprises an opened box body 11. A first holding component and a second holding component, which are mirrored in structure, are provided at two opposite inner sidewalls of the box body 11 respectively (only one holding component is shown in FIG. 1). The description concerning the first holding component also applies to the second holding component, unless otherwise stated.

The first and the second holding components will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4, wherein FIG. 4 is an illustrative top view of the packaging box with the cover thereof being removed.

As shown in FIG. 4, each one of the first and the second holding components comprises a plurality of recesses 12. The plurality of recesses 12 includes at least one first recess 21 and at least one second recess 22. The first recesses 21 of the first and the second holding components are constructed such that a first distance is defined between the bottom of the first recess 21 of the first holding component and the bottom of the corresponding first recess 21 of the second holding component, and a second distance is defined between the bottom of the second recess 22 of the first holding component and the bottom of the corresponding second recess 22 of the second holding component. A display panel having a first size (for example, length) that is substantially equal to the first distance could be held between the first recess 21 of the first holding component and the corresponding first recess 21 of the second holding component. A display panel having a second size (for example, length) that is substantially equal to the second distance could be held between the second recess 22 of the first holding component and the corresponding second recess 22 of the second holding component.

When the opened end of the first recess 21 and the opened end of the second recess 22 lie in a same plane, the first recess 21 may be constructed to have a depth that is smaller than the depth of the second recess 22, so that the first distance is different from (i.e. smaller than) the second distance.

Therefore, a single packaging box could be used to carry display panels having different sizes. The width of the first and the second recesses 21, 22 may be sized based on actual situation. In an embodiment (not shown) of the present invention, the width of the first recess 21 may be narrower than the width of the second recess 22.

If necessary, each one of the first and the second holding components may comprise three or more different recesses, such that the packaging box could be used to carry three or more different display panels.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the numbers of the first recesses and the second recesses are substantially the same, and the first recesses and the second recesses are alternately arranged. This will make the load of the packaging box even.

With the packaging box of the first embodiment of the present invention, one type of packaging box can be used to package two or more different display panels, so as to avoid using too many different types of packaging boxes. Furthermore, the management of these packaging boxes is facilitated, and the cost is reduced.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative perspective view of a packaging box according to the second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the packaging box further comprises a lid 13, which matches with the box body 11 and covers the opened end of the box body 11 such that the packaging box is sealed. In this way, the stability of the display panels inside the packaging box is ensured, and the safety and reliability of the transportation is improved. Except for the lid 13, the packing box according to the second embodiment is identical to the packing box according to the first embodiment.

When stacking of the packaging boxes is not necessary, the packaging box does not have to comprise a lid, as described with reference to the first embodiment.

To be noted, the depth and the width of the first and the second recesses can be determined based on the actual sizes of the display panels. In order not to rub the display panels with the recesses, a clearance fit may be provided between the display panels and the recesses. Also, in order to stably hold the display panels, a transition fit may be provided between the display panels and the recesses.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative exploded perspective view of a packaging box according to the third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, an upper gasket 31 and a lower gasket 32 are provided to further hold the display panels. Except for the upper and lower gaskets 31, 32, the packing box according to the third embodiment is identical to the packing box according to the second embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 3, the lower gasket 31 may be positioned at the bottom inside the box body 11, and the lower gasket 31 is provided with a plurality of first receiving grooves 311, each of which aligns with corresponding first recesses 21 or second recesses 22. When display panels are inserted into the first recesses 21 and/or the second recesses 22 and be lowered to the bottom of the box body, the lower sides of the display panels will also be received in the first receiving grooves 311 of the lower gasket 31.

Similarly, the upper gasket 32 may be placed to the upper side of the display panels after they have been put into the opened packaging body. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the upper gasket 32 may be embedded into the downside of the lid 13. The upper gasket 32 is also provided with a plurality of second receiving grooves, each of which aligns with corresponding first recesses 21 or second recesses 22 and corresponds to a corresponding first receiving groove 311. When display panels are inserted into the first recesses 21 and/or the second recesses 22 and the lid 13 is positioned onto the opened end of the box body, the upper sides of the display panels will also be received in the second receiving grooves of the upper gasket 32. The lid 13 may then be fixed to the packaging body 11 and bear against the upper gasket 32, and thus the packaging of the display panels are completed.

In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the upper gasket 32 and the lower gasket 31 are made of flexible material such as rubber, such that the gaskets have certain softness and may provide cushion function to the display panels inside the packaging box and therefore protect the display panels from being damaged due to a rough road and from being rubbed at the upper ends and the lower ends of the display panels.

The lid 13 and the box body 11 may be connected through different ways. In an exemplary embodiment (not shown), they can be connected through a snap fit connection. Specifically, the box body 11 is provided with at least one protrusion, which can be received in at least one corresponding recess formed at an inner sidewall of the lid 13.

In order to package more display panels and thus improve the utilization of the packaging box, the interval between one first recess 21 and an adjacent second recess 22 may be configured to be minimum, as long as the manufacturing process requirements are met and the display panels can be easily inserted in and pulled out.

The sizes of display panels also comprise heights of the display panels. In order to hold the display panels steadily, the upper gasket 32 and the lower gasket 31 may be configured to have various thicknesses to adapt to different heights of the display panels. Specifically, when the packaging box is used to package one type of display panels whose length and thickness are mated with the packaging box, the thicknesses of the upper gasket 32 and the lower gasket 31 may be selected based on the height of the display panels so that the upper and lower gaskets and the display panels fill the inner space of the box body in the height direction of the box body, thus, when the lid 13 covers the box body, the underside of the lid 13 is in surface contact with the upper surface of the upper gasket 32, in this way, the display panels can be secured in the up and down direction. When the packaging box is used to package two or more different types of display panels (for example, the lengths and thicknesses of the display panels are mated with the packaging box, but the display panels have different heights), different upper and lower gaskets 32, 31 may be used. Usually, a LCD panel is cut through an asymmetric cutting process and the resulted display panels often have same lengths and different heights. If two or more types of display panels of different heights need to be held in the packaging box, the upper gasket 32 may have deeper receiving recesses (not shown), so that the upper sides of the display panels, regardless of their heights, may be received in the deeper receiving recesses.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, each one of the first recesses 21 and the second recesses 22 of the first and second holding components has a cuboid shape so as to match the shape of the edges of the display panels. Furthermore, the upper ends of the first and second holding components may be chamfered to facilitate the insertion of the display panels.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative top view of the packaging box according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention. The only difference between the fourth embodiment and the fifth embodiment of the packaging box lies in the design of the second recesses 22.

As shown in FIG. 5, each one of the second recesses 22 having a larger depth is configured to comprise a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicated with each other, and the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion. Furthermore, the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion. When a display panel is inserted into the second recess 21, only the first cuboid-shaped portion is used to hold the display panel, and the second cuboid-shaped portion does not contact the display panel, so that the contact area between the display panel and the second recess 21 is reduced, and thus the rubbing and scrub and the like between the display panel and the second recess 21 are reduced.

After loading display panels into the packaging box and covering the box body with the lid 13, the packaging box could be transported. Usually the packaging boxes should be arranged in certain ways, because display panels are fragile and should be kept away from moisture. In order to indicate operators to arrange packaging boxes in a suitable arrangement, an indicator may be provided. For example, the box body and/or the lid of a packaging box may be provided with a sign “FRONT” (as shown in FIG. 2) and an arrow, so that operators may arrange the packaging box in accord with these indicators.

In the present invention, the display panel could be a commonly used LCD panel, or other types of panels.

Throughout this specification, the directions or relationships indicated by terms “center”, “upper”, “down”, “front”, “rear”, “left”, “right”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “inner”, and “outer” are based on the directions or relationships indicated by the drawings, and are merely used to facilitate description of the invention, not to limit the invention or technical features thereof to any special direction or relationship in which the invention could be carried out. That is to say, these terms cannot be interpreted as a limitation(s) to the invention.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives “first”, “second”, etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate or imply that different instances of like objects are being referred to, or there are more than one such objects. Therefore, these terms are not intended to indicate or imply the number of the objects.

In the description herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of “a plurality of” means there are two or more such objects. In the description herein, unless otherwise specified, the terms “mount”, “connect”, and “couple” should be broadly interpreted. For example, two components can be fixedly connected or detachably connected, or these two components can be directly connected or connected via one or more intermediate components, or these two components can be internally communicated. Those skilled in the art will determine exact meanings of the terms with reference to the context.

In the description provided herein, specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described in one or more embodiments can be combined in any suitable ways.

Although several exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A packaging box for display panels, comprising a box body having an opened end, wherein a pair of opposite inner sidewalls of the box body is provided with a first holding component and a second holding component respectively, and each of the first holding component and the second holding component comprises at least one first recess and at least one second recess, wherein a first distance is formed between the bottom of one first recess of the first holding component and the bottom of one corresponding first recess of the second holding component, and a second distance is formed between the bottom of one second recess of the first holding component and the bottom of one corresponding second recess of the second holding component, and wherein the first distance is different from the second distance.
 2. The packaging box according to claim 1, further comprising a lid configured to cover the opened end of the box body.
 3. The packaging box according to claim 2, the box body and the lid are connected with each other through a snap-fit connection.
 4. The packaging box according to claim 2, wherein the box body and/or the lid comprises an indicator to indicate the arrangement of the packaging box.
 5. The packaging box according to claim 2, further comprising: a lower gasket located at the inner bottom of the box body and having a plurality of first receiving grooves therein; and an upper gasket embedded in and fastened to the downside of the lid and having a plurality of second receiving grooves therein, wherein the plurality of first receiving grooves and the plurality of second receiving grooves are arranged to align with corresponding first and second recesses respectively.
 6. The packaging box according to claim 5, wherein the lower gasket and the upper gasket are formed from a material having a certain flexibility.
 7. The packaging box according to claim 5, wherein the second receiving grooves have a depth that is substantially larger than the depth of the first receiving groove, so as to receive the upper ends of the display panels having different heights.
 8. The packaging box according to claim 1, wherein the number of the first recesses equals to the number of the second recesses.
 9. The packaging box according to claim 8, wherein the first recesses and the second recesses are alternately arranged.
 10. The packaging box according to claim 1, wherein upper ends of the first and the second recesses are chamfered to facilitate insertion of the display panels.
 11. The packaging box according to claim 1, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 12. The packaging box according to claim 2, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 13. The packaging box according to claim 3, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 14. The packaging box according to claim 4, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 15. The packaging box according to claim 5, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 16. The packaging box according to claim 6, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 17. The packaging box according to claim 7, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 18. The packaging box according to claim 8, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 19. The packaging box according to claim 9, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion.
 20. The packaging box according to claim 10, wherein the first distance is smaller than the second distance, the first recess is cuboid-shaped, the second recess comprises a first cuboid-shaped portion and a second cuboid-shaped portion communicating with each other, wherein, the first cuboid-shaped portion is located outside of the second cuboid-shaped portion, and the width of the first cuboid-shaped portion is smaller than the width of the second cuboid-shaped portion. 